Read More

The murder of Pedro Godinho

Praise for three witnesses

The judge praised three witnesses who were with Mr Godinho when he was fatally stabbed, including Mr Godinho’s friend whose jacket sleeve was slashed by Braithwaite during the incident, and sisters, Jayde and Terri Bunsie.

He said: “I commend them for their steadfastness in testifying.”

Judge Dean also publicly commended the police officers and a force analyst who were involved in the murder inquiry, saying it was an “efficiently conducted investigation.”

Killer led from dock

Braithwaite, wearing a white open neck shirt and dark trousers, raises his arm and says “love you” to friends and relatives in the public gallery.

They replied the same to him as he was led from the dock.

16:56

What does 21 years in prison mean?

Judge: “It is most important that you and everyone else concerned with this case should understand what this in fact means.

“The minimum term is not a fixed term after which you will automatically be released but the minimum time that you will spend in custody before your case can be considered by the parole board and it will be for the parole board to say, at that time, whether or not you will be released.

“If they do not you will remain in custody.”

16:54

Sentence passed

Passing sentence, Judge Dean said: “Balancing the aggravating and mitigating features, as I must, it seems to me that the minimum term that is appropriate in this case is 21 years.

“The sentence therefore is life imprisonment with not less than 21 years to be served before consideration can be given to your possible release on licence.”

16:53

Aggravating features

Judge: “I must consider any aggravating and mitigating features.

“To my mind the sole aggravating feature is that you’ve been violent in the past.

“I put aside the very little I know about your behaviour towards (Braithwaite’s ex-partner), but when you were 14 you were involved in serious violence for someone of the age you were then.

“Because of that violence, serious as it was, occurred when you were a child, it can add only modestly to your sentence – all over factors aside, it would add to the minimum term a period of one year’s detention.”

Judge Dean also said he was taking into account Braithwaite’s age and immaturity.

16:52

Killers showed no remorse

Judge: “You have shown no remorse – in the letter you’ve written to me and which I’ve read today you say that you didn’t intend to hurt Pedro, but you remain insistent that you were acting in self-defence and you remain insistent that witnesses lied.

“Your claim during the trial, to have been ‘sad’ about Mr Godinho’s death was the real lie - in truth you’ve shown contempt for Mr Godinho and indeed contempt to the court by your behaviour; your gestures towards the jury after you were convicted.

“Again these factors don’t increase your sentence, but they deprive you of mitigation that might otherwise have been available.”

16:50

Judge: 'You are a coward and a vicious bully'

“What happened required very little further elaboration.

“In choosing immediately to travel to intercept Godinho, I do not find that Braithwaite was necessarily planning to kill, he was planning to confront and he was prepared to use violence if he didn’t get a grovelling and submissive response.

“I find that Godinho didn’t respond with anger and aggression, rather he was bemused and denied he’d done anything wrong.

“Godinho may have raised his voice, but he didn’t do so in aggression, he did so in his insistence he’d done nothing wrong.

“His efforts and that of the others at the scene to calm Braithwaite were futile.

“He didn’t want to be calmed, he wanted, as I’ve said, grovelling subservience.

“When he didn’t get it he acted in anger by pulling out the knife he was carrying and by immediately stabbing Godinho.

“You Braithwaite gave Pedro Godinho no warning and no chance to defend himself.

“You are, or at least you were, on March 26 this year, both a coward and a vicious bully,

“Someone who chooses to plunge a knife into another man’s chest will usually intend to kill, taking into account all that was happening at the time, in that moment, I am sure that was exactly your intention.

“That intent doesn’t mean I increase your sentence, but had your intent been no more than to do really serious harm then that would have been a mitigating feature allowing some reduction in the length of time to be served.”

16:25

Attack a 'pretext for demonstration of machismo'

The judge said there was no provocation and added: “In truth, Braithwaite didn’t know whether his younger sister had been slighted or offended and he didn’t know who might have done that.

“A tenuously dishonestly held ‘belief’ was Braithwaite’s pretext for a demonstration of machismo.”

16:24

'Braithwaite sees himself a man not to be messed with'

Judge Dean said: “Mr Braithwaite may himself have been a drug dealer and may have carried a knife himself because he dealt in drugs, but it seems to me that as much as anything else Braithwaite carried a knife because it suited his self-image.

“The events of March 26 are explained by a simple fact – Braithwaite sees himself a man not to be messed with, a man not to be defied.

“If, and I emphasise if, something offensive was said to his sister it is a lie for Braithwaite to claim that he was seeking peaceful redress for her.

“On the contrary, a slight to his sister was an opportunity for Braithwaite to demonstrate that he wasn’t to be messed with, it was an opportunity for him to impose his will, his ego, on another and to do so violently.

“In effect this was self-generated and wholly artificial anger designed to give Braithwaite an opportunity to display his power, his inflated sense of self.”

16:22

'Mr Godinho was not a drug dealer'

The judge continues: “During his trial, Ezekiel Braithwaite portrayed Pedro Godinho as someone he claimed to believe was a knife-carrying drug dealer.

“Again, I must make it clear he is not to be punished for how he chose to run his trial, he is not to be punished for the lies he told the jury; the sentence will reflect no more and no less than what Braithwaite did and the type of man he is.

“He had no such belief, and Mr Godinho was not – at least not in the sense suggested by Braithwaite – a drug dealer.

“Mr Godinho was not carrying a knife on March 26, he did not carry knives.”

16:17

Judge: 'Pedro Godinho's second child will never know their father'

The sentencing remarks continued: “Pedro Godinho was, as I have said, only 22 when he died.

“He came from a small but close family.

“He was married and had a very young child and his wife was pregnant.

“Pedro Godinho now has a second child, a child which can never know his father.

“Because he was loved, Mr Godinho’s loss is keenly and deeply felt within his family, that is clear from the victim personal statement written on behalf of his family by his cousin Marcio Rafael Godinho, a statement which I have read and considered.”

16:16

'If you go to prison you damage all those who love you'

Judge Dean said: “Those who carry knives should also remember this; if you go to prison it is your life, not just the life of someone you have killed or injured that will be devastated.

“If you go to prison you damage all those who love you – often you damage the very people you would say you care for.”

16:11

Judge: ''Knives carried in self defence are never used for self defence'

The judge continues: “There can be very few legitimate reasons for carrying knives.

“Young men may claim they are carrying knives in self-defence, but even if that is true – and it rarely is – carrying a knife because of some vague and general fear of being attacked is not a legitimate reason for carrying an knife on the streets of Leicester.

“It is a criminal offence merely to carry a knife, or other bladed article, without good reason.

“The knives young men say they carry for self-defence are never – and I mean never – actually used in self-defence.

“They are produced and used to attack others – usually other young men.

“Knives feature in a very high proportion of murders, attempted murders and woundings.

“Many victims die as a consequence of a single stab wound and they die quickly.

”Stab wounds are so easily inflicted and are so quickly fatal that everything that can be done to deter knife crime must be done and that includes this court sending the message that the carrying of knives in the street will not be tolerated and will be met, on conviction, with severe punishment.”

16:04

Judge: 'There has been a surge in knife crime in Leicester'

The judge says: “The needless, pointless death of Pedro Godinho on March 26 this year came at a time when here in Leicester we were experiencing a surge in knife crime and in deaths and serious injury caused, for the most part, by young men wielding the knives they invariably claim they carried in self-defence.

“I make it clear from the outset that Ezekiel Braithwaite will not receive additional punishment because he was part of that surge of knife crime – a surge in fact not just experienced here in Leicester, but nationally – and nor will he do so because I’m taking this opportunity to comment on and raise wider concerns about knife crime.”

15:59

Judge starts sentencing

The judge has returned to court and is now proceeding to pass sentence.

15:56

Heartbreaking statement from Pedro's family

Mr Godinho’s cousin, Marcio Godinho, made a personal impact statement on behalf of the family.

It was read out in court by the prosecutor who said: “We are a small family, at the most there is only 10 of us.

“We are very tight knit.

“His grandmother, who is also my grandma, raised him.

“She became his mother, father and grandmother.

“She’s now 75 and her health has deteriorated.

“My own health has deteriorated as well.

“I am under so much stress my cardiologist says that this condition has been brought on by shock and stress.

'It was self-induced anger without any reality to it'

“He didn’t know what had been said or who had said something to his sister.

“He took it that there had been some slight or offence and he wanted to extract a grovelling submissive apology - and absent of that there would be violence.”

Mr Mendelle said: “The motive, albeit tragically ill-judged, was that he felt something had been said to his little sister that required his attention.

“He’s protective of his siblings.

“He didn’t find out what was said.

“It was a family matter and he has overreacted.”

15:02

Mr Godinho's partner has just given birth

The judge is now in court and Ezekiel Braithwaite has just said “yes” in answer to his name.

The prosecutor is reading out a moving personal impact statement written by a cousin of Mr Godinho.

It says that the victim was a father of a young son with his partner expecting another boy when he was killed.

The children are now two and six weeks old.

The family of Mr Godinho are said to be “devastated” by the death of Pedro.

His partner‘s life dreams of a future with him have been “shattered.”

14:54

Defendants on the way up

The public gallery is now full and every available seat is taken.

The prosecutor, Michael Evans QC, has taken his place in court.

The clerk has just phoned to the cells below the court to ask for defendant to be brought into the dock.

14:45

Life behind bars

Braithwaite’s defence barrister, Paul Mendelle QC, is now seated in court room five with his junior barrister.

The court clerk is waiting for the defendant to be brought into the dock, which is completely encased in thick security glass, and for the prosecutor Michael Evans QC to arrive before the usher calls on the case for members of the public to be allowed into court.

Everyone will have to stand up when Judge Nicholas Dean QC comes in to pass a sentence of life imprisonment – which is a statutory sentence for an offence of murder.

14:27

Hearing delayed

We’re still waiting on the barristers in the case to attend. As soon as they arrive the hearing will start and our coverage will begin.